Dr. Andrew Gowan is a native of Jackson, Tennessee. His experiences include successful teaching in the schools of Bolivar, TN, the Briarcrest Schools of Memphis, TN, and Lander University in Greenwood, SC.

Dr. Gowan joined the School of Music faculty at the University of South Carolina in 1984 and has been involved with the marching and concert bands, undergraduate music education classes, woodwind teaching, and undergraduate and graduate conducting instruction. He has served as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator of bands, orchestras, and choirs in more than a dozen states. Dr. Gowan's original compositions and arrangements for woodwinds are published by Northeastern Music Publications, Inc., and his research articles have appeared in The Instrumentalist and the Journal of Band Research. He received the National Band Association's "Citation of Excellence" in 1993.

As a professional saxophonist he has performed with such entertainers as Ray Charles, Lou Rawls, Johnny Mathis, the Four Tops, and the Temptations. He has been a regular performer with Columbia area combos, jazz ensembles, and musical theatre pit bands. Dr. Gowan performed on oboe and English horn with the Palmetto Concert Band and the Lake Murray Symphony Orchestra, which he also conducted for a period of years. As a member of the Carolina Saxophone Quartet from 2000-2005, he performed at the 2002 biennial conference of the North American Saxophone Alliance in Denton, Texas.

Dr. Gowan was appointed to the position of Associate Dean of Music and Director of Undergraduate Studies in 1995. He assumed the position of Director of Graduate Studies in 2003, and he served as Executive Associate Dean of Music from 2013 until his retirement.